Now Elaina's reading the tablet! Only she can actually read it! That's not good, that's really not good! Elaina, what are you thinking?! Hopefully, someone will be able to stop her before she does something that they'll all regret. Remember to review!

Also, thank you to everyone who read my story "The Heir to the Dragon". I would appreciate if you continue to read and support it in the future! You can get there through my profile!

We've got a decent amount of girls nominated, but there's always room for more! If there are any other girls you think deserve a chance at the title of Pokemon Academy Best Girl, nominate them here!

Currently Nominated: Alcea, Ayame, Carrie, Caelia, Cynthia, Dakota, Elaina, Elizabeth, Julia, Kate, Kitty, Maddi, Marion, Nikita, Olivia, Sango, Sylvia

KedharS: There is a formula to it, it just might not be apparent.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: There is definitely some conflict in the Blake x Elaina ship, I don't think it's wrong to say that it's not entirely a positive. The thing is, Blake doesn't know Elaina. He doesn't know her at all, because she's such a recluse. I do think his goals are altruistic, and he does care about her, but I would never say he's doing it out of friendship. Whether that's good or not is up to you.

Thunder Fire: That's quite an interesting theory. Whether you're right or not remains to be seen…

JoshGamerV: That's quite an interpretation. By that logic, perhaps Sango could also read the tablet…

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 622

Elaina could read the words, and knowing that, she knew she could reach out to Blake Harker. She could open that gate to wherever it was he'd disappeared to. She opened her mouth to begin reading, but Gerard ripped the tablet from her fingers before she could start. And like that, the words vanished from her mind.

Elaina stared numbly at her hands for a moment, shocked by what had happened. Then, that shock turned to anger as she realized what Gerard had done.

"Gerard, what are you doing?!" Elaina demanded, whirling on her supposed sponsor. She had expected someone to interfere with her and try to stop her from reading it, but she hadn't expected a betrayal from him, of all people. Gerard glared at her with an expression that would normally make her flinch with shame at having offended him, but right now her anger was overpowering her sense of responsibility. "Give me that back! I could read it! I'm going to read it and open the portal again, give it back!"

"You can read it, too?!" Sango exclaimed.

"Fascinating," Aurore mused. He found it interesting that Gerard and Elaina could both read from the tablet, but none of them could. What did that mean? Mysteries like this were part of the reason he was so fascinated with archaeology, after all.

But his curiosity was not shared by the other archaeologist in the room. Elizabeth just looked worried. Like Aurore, she wasn't sure why these two people could read from the tablet and they could, she wasn't sure what was going on with a lot of things right now. But her primary concern was the safety of everyone involved, and especially Sango. She wasn't about to risk that portal being opened as long as Sango could get sucked into it. "Listen, I think you should both just put the tablet down," she urged. "As long as that tablet is here, and you can read it, the shadows could emerge. And if they do, then we're all in danger. So just put it down and let's discuss this, okay?"

Unfortunately, Gerard and Elaina were so lost in their own conflict that neither one was paying attention to her.

"Elaina, you're not thinking properly," Gerard snapped.

"The hell I'm not!" Elaina growled. Who was he to tell her that?! He didn't understand a damn thing! "Give that to me! I'll open that gate go where wherever the hell Blake has been taken, and bring him back!"

Elaina had had a very stressful day. She had finally managed to convince Gerard to put himself back together and stop being so broken-down, and he had agreed, cleaning himself up and heading out to get his life back on track. Elaina had been happy with him, in no small part because it meant that now she could move on herself and no longer have to deal with the stress of uncertainty in her life. If Gerard could keep things on track, and maybe even help her find a way to overcome the pain of her harmonia, then it wouldn't matter that she couldn't trust Blake any longer.

But when everything was looking up, she'd learned (from Gerard, no less!) that Blake had gone missing a few nights ago, while she had been busy trying to convince Gerard to recover from his self-destructive actions.

Now, Elaina just felt awful. She could have saved him. She wasn't sure how, but it was possible. Maybe… maybe if she hadn't doubted him, is she hadn't bothered to help Gerard, then she might have felt something? She didn't fully know what she would be able to do, but she hadn't even tried. He had done so much for her. Sure, it might have been out of his own selfishness, so he could use her for the sake of his sister, but it didn't change the fact that he had helped her a lot, and had once been someone that she loved dearly. Even now, those emotions were still there, exposed and raw. And now Blake was just gone.

With that knowledge, that Blake was gone, she felt like her doubts about him were no longer so important. The only thing she cared about was that he was gone, and she might never see him again. When Gerard had told her, her heart had broken. And then he told her that there might be more going on. She had clung to that hope and followed him, where she saw Sango again, still as troubled as when she had spent time with her as Elly. Along with that other woman, the strange woman with harmonia that Elaina found strangely drawn to, and of course, the professor.

And when they explained what that tablet was? What had happened to Blake? With every word, her hopes grew more and more. Blake wasn't gone. Not really. He had just been taken somewhere else, by those horrible shadows.

He wasn't gone. She could save him. She would find a way to save him, to bring him back to her, and after that, everything would be better. She would make up for her past doubts, for not being there for him, she just knew that she would!

But before she could, it was ripped from her hands by someone she thought she could trust, and now she didn't know what to do. Her hopes were dashed and her rage was burning even brighter, and she didn't understand why Gerard was doing this! Who was he, to tell her how she was supposed to feel, when this was all her fault for not being there for him? Who was he to take away her opportunity to save him, to prove this horrible power of hers could be used for some good?

"Elaina, I know that you're in a vulnerable place right now, and that your relationship with Blake is… complicated to say the least, but you need to think about this, please," Gerard said, surprising Elaina for a second. He almost sounded concerned for her. …Well, of course he was. If something happened to Elaina, then he wouldn't be able to use her to his means, she realized.

Elaina scowled behind her mask, stuck behind being unsure of what to do. She wanted Blake back, but Gerard didn't. If she tried to read from that tablet and summon him back, that would be the equivalent to a betrayal of the one person who had always been on her side, and had helped her for all this time, even if it had been to suit his own ends. She clenched her hands into fists, shaking them impotently at her sides.

She just wished that Gerard could, for once, do what she wanted.

"This is just what you've always wanted, isn't it?" Elaina growled. "You hate Blake, after all. You want him to suffer. You want him to be gone. After all, Blake's been getting in your way all this time, hasn't he? So of course if I'm trying to save him, you would interfere with me!"

It had stunned Elaina, saying that. Especially since she didn't truly believe it. Certainly, part of her felt that way, that Gerard's hatred of Blake was what was driving him, that he was just being petty and spiteful. But as cynical as Elaina might have been, even she couldn't fully convince herself that that was the case. But what she did want to do was strike back at Gerard, hurt him whatever way she knew how, and bitterly rebuking him like this was the only method she could think of. Cursing him out also eased her own pain, as it so often did.

Gerard stared silently at her as the words sank in. The other three people in the room had fallen silent, but neither Gerard nor Elaina cared about what they thought. Right now, the two of them were the only ones who mattered to each other.

Finally, after an eternity of leaving Elaina waiting in silent tension, Gerard decided to talk, and not in a tone of voice that Elaina had expected at all. He was solemn, conciliatory. It was stunning to hear from a guy like him.

"I won't lie to you Elaina, Blake isn't someone I would call a friend," Gerard quietly admitted. "But that doesn't mean I would want to leave him trapped in some horrible hell-dimension after being dragged their by awful shadows."

Elaina admitted that was probably true. Even knowing that Gerard was far from the best person in the world, he wasn't a monster who would do something horrible like that. She had crossed a line, and said something cruel. But that didn't stop her rage, either. All she wanted to do was save Blake, and she didn't know how to do it.

"Elaina… there's no easy way to say this," Gerard said, "but you might have to accept the reality that Blake really is gone."

Elaina wouldn't accept that. She would never accept that.

"You heard them," Gerard said. "No one has ever found their way back after being swallowed by the shadows. You might have to accept that reality, and understand that Blake is just one more. That he might never come back."

Was he serious right now? Had just glancing at that tablet for a moment transported Elaina into an alternate reality where nothing makes sense, and people were just crazy? She didn't understand what had brought on this change all of a sudden. Earlier he had just been proclaiming that those adults were wrong for thinking that no one would ever be able to escape! And now he was telling her to give up!? Her rage flared back up, and she felt the air around her begin to swirl as she started to lose control again she was so angry.

"What the hell is with that?!" She exclaimed. "Weren't you just saying that it was impossible to say 'impossible'? That Sylvia was the sort of person who would destroy things like impossible? And now you're telling me to give up?!"

Gerard sighed, staring at the eyes of her mask. She could see into his eyes, and could see how conflicted he was.

"You're right," he admitted. "I… misspoke. It was wrong of me to say that Blake and Sylvia could never return. Sylvia is indeed the kind of person to destroy expectations. If it were possible, then I'm sure she could find a way to do it. But… I've changed my mind as of this moment."

"Why?" Elaina snarled at him.

"What were you thinking, planning to read from the tablet?" Gerard asked, his voice filling with rage, maybe even anger that could match Elaina's own. "Do you have any idea what might have happened if you did? There's a reason I didn't try to read it! If those shadows open, we're done, don't you get that? We'll be dragged away! So tell me, Elaina, what was the plan?!"

Elaina baulked, taking a step back. She was grateful for her mask, concealing the shame no-doubt burning on her face. Admittedly, she hadn't been thinking. She was hoping that if she opened the portal, somehow, she could force her way through it and drag Blake out, but now that her anger and frustration was starting to fade, she understood how reckless and stupid that "plan" had been. Gerard was right, she would have hurt someone.

Elaina lowered her gaze, her silence more than enough of an answer.

Gerard sighed. "That's the reason why I had to stop you, Elaina, don't you see that?" His tone had started gentle, but as he continued to speak he grew more frantic. "You have faith that he could be alive, and I wanted you to have that, because I thought it would help you. But if that faith would lead you to do something this crazy, make you open the portal recklessly just to try and drag him back without even thinking, then I regret ever giving you that hope in the first place. I want you to be safe more than I want Blake back, Elaina. So please. Before you do something else, give up on him. Otherwise, you'll just get hurt again."

Of course she understood what Gerard was saying. She wasn't a fool. She could see her own recklessness now that it was staring her in the face. But what was she supposed to do? What could she do? Elaina's feelings towards Blake were complicated at this point. Part of her never wanted to see him again. The other part of her desperately wanted to see him. Her heart was split down the middle and if she did see him again, she didn't even know how she would react.

Elaina closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She tried to calm her thoughts. It was lucky that she wasn't fighting right now, because if she was in a pokemon battle she absolutely would have lost control. She cared about Blake, but Blake betrayed her. She wanted to be with him, but she couldn't trust him. She wanted her harmonia gone, but knew she could never rely on him to help her, not when he saw her as nothing more than a means to an end.

With all of her conflicted emotions, her desire to help but her own feeling of helplessness, there was only one thing she could do right now.

A blast of air from her harmonia hit everyone else and she yelled angrily, turned, and stormed out of the room.

Gerard sighed and set the tablet down, heading for the door.

"Wait a second," Elizabeth said, walking around the desk and approaching the door herself. "Let me, I might be able to help."

Gerard shook his head, not even sparing the woman a look. He couldn't help himself. She reminded him way too much of his sister. Even if she barely looked like her, he couldn't not see Elizabeth, Elly, when he looked the doctor in the eye. And he couldn't be distracted by worthless sentimentality right now, not when things were so hazardous.

"You can't help. Just leave it alone," he muttered, chasing after Elaina. Gerard had meant what he had said. He didn't want Blake to be back. He wasn't so cruel as to leave him there or wish it on him, so he would help bring the boy back if he could, but he wouldn't be happy about it. Blake was a nuisance at best, and an active saboteur of his plans at worst. His very existence was a spot of turmoil in Elaina's life, and Gerard planned to take full advantage of that turmoil.

Right now, Elaina was conflicted. Her heart was split about Blake, but his disappearance made her want him back. But those initial conflicts that had spurred on her doubts were still there. He would have to work fast at sabotaging those feelings and getting her back into the feeling of blame and untrustworthiness she'd thought towards Blake.

Elaina was a fast runner. He wasn't able to catch up with her until she had already made it back into her room.

"Elaina," Gerard said gently, stepping into her room. She hadn't locked the door behind her for once. Maybe she had been waiting for him. The fact that she still wore her mask even though they were in private reinforced that thought. Elaina said on her bed, facing away from him, her body shaking the familiar tremors of sorrow. She was crying.

"What do you want, Gerard?" Elaina hissed, turning back to him. He couldn't see the expression on her face, but he suspected her eyes were red and her lips were pulled back into a snarl. Gerard took a deep breath, and tried to sound as concerned as possible.

"I was worried about you, of course," Gerard said.

"Of course you are." He could hear the bitterness in her voice. "If something happens to me, then your tool won't be as useful, now would it?"

"…Why would you say something like that?" Gerard asked, taking a moment to consider the situation at hand. He knew full-well that Elaina knew that his concern for her was more about what she could do for him than genuine care for her as a person. She remained working with him because of her loyalty towards him for all he had done, and her faith in his ability to help her (or, if he were more cynical, perhaps it was just the inability for her to accept the fact that there was nothing that could be done, and willing to believe in even a slim chance). And he was happy to let the partnership stand like that. But he couldn't deny that it was inconvenient in situations like this.

"Am I wrong?" She asked. "You're just like Blake, you know? Neither one of you truly cares for me. You're just using me to suit your own ends, after all."

In spite of the anger in her voice, Gerard approached. She made no move to stop him, which meant he'd taken the right bet. She was angry, but not to the extent of losing all reason. He could tell that from the fact that the air wasn't smacking him in the face right now.

Gerard sat down beside her and she turned to look at him, the two staring at each other silently for a long time before he finally said something.

"You're wrong when you say I don't care about you, Elaina," he said. "I do care. You're valuable to me, your abilities are astounding. And you're right to think that I see you as a tool to suit my own ends. At the same time, however, I do truly want to help you."

"But that isn't the same as caring for me," Elaina growled. It hurt her to say that, but it was still true. "You don't see me for who I am, and even if you did, you wouldn't care."

She wasn't wrong to think that. Gerard accepted that fact. He had no use for Elaina the person. He didn't care anything about her that didn't aid him in his own tasks. But as volatile as she was, he couldn't just go right out and say that. Which is why he so often tried to turn the situation around to where that wouldn't be relevant to the conversation.

"Do you think that I don't want to help you?" Gerard asked.

"What?" Elaina's bitterness had been replaced with surprise. Gerard had found a way inside, and he was going to use it.

"I want to help you, Elaina. I need you to understand that. Yes, I'm trying to use those powers of yours to suit my own ends. I've always been honest with you about that. But I promise you, that I will help you control those powers of yours. I will help you find a way to find your own happiness. And that's what's most important," Gerard pleaded. "When that happens, when you're free, when you no longer need to wear that mask of yours, then I will wait for you to decide what to do next."

"What do you mean?" Elaina asked quietly.

"You've seen how weak I am," Gerard said. "That's why I've relied on you so much. Because you're stronger than me, in many ways. Until this moment, we've been relying on each other to accomplish our goals and move forward. But eventually, you'll have no use for me. When that happens, if you still can't trust that I have your best interests at heart, then you can toss me aside. But until that moment, I promise that I will help you. Please, believe me."

Gerard reached out a hand and ran it through Elaina's hair. She didn't flinch away from him, accepting the comforting gesture. That brought a smile to his face.

"Blake… doesn't care about me," Elaina admitted. "He only wants me to succeed for the sake of his sister. And yet… I can't bring it in myself to abandon him. How can I be so pathetic?"

"I don't think that makes you pathetic," Gerard said, shaking his head. "It just shows that you really are the worst person to be cursed with this power of yours. Someone like you, who cares for everyone, even someone like me, even someone like Blake, is the worst kind of person to be forced to hurt other people."

"I hate this power," Elaina echoed. "But I don't hate Blake."

"You don't have to hate him," Gerard assured her.

"Do you really think it's possible that he might come back?" Elaina asked. The hopefulness in her voice was an irritant, but Gerard didn't let it show on his face.

"I do think it's possible," Gerard admitted. "He is a talented person, and Sylvia even moreso. If there's someone who could return from wherever it was that those two were sent to, then it would be the two of them."

"I see…" Gerard could hear the smile in her voice.

"But… I don't think that you should think about it," Gerard added. She turned to him again, her voice filled with confusion.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Even if they come back, there's no telling when that could happen," Gerard explained. "They could be gone for years, Elaina. And what will you do? Keeping pining after something that could take years? You have to move on. Even if that means you have to cast away all your feelings for him, or even force yourself to hate him. If you can't… then you'll keep forcing yourself to feel this pain, until it becomes too much for you to endure. Don't you see?"

Elaina turned away, staring out the window at the snow, beginning to turn red in the setting sun. Gerard was right. She couldn't keep hoping that Blake would show up again. She'd put her faith in him so much, and it had been pointless. Even if it was her fault he was gone… No. No, it wasn't her fault. She was just blaming herself. There was nothing she could have done. She was just sad that he was gone, and taking that pain out on herself to try and deal with it.

But that was meaningless.

No, she wouldn't blame herself anymore. She would move on from Blake. Have faith in the pain he had inflicted, and scorn him, even if it tore her up inside.

And then, maybe she would find a way to heal.

Things are going rough for Elaina. Hopefully she can find a way to move on that doesn't involve cursing Blake and cutting him out of her heart.